Volume 10, Issue 1, 1996

Webmaster's Note: The site described here was replaced in March 1999. We have tried to correct as many links as possible.

Introduction

WinEcon is a unique interactive learning software package for
teaching introductory economics. The software offers more than
75 hours of tutorial material and includes: self-assessment
questions and exams, economic databases, economic glossary and
references to leading economic texts. The software was developed
by the TLTP Economics Consortium under the UK Teaching and
Learning Technology Programme and is being distributed
internationally by Blackwell
Publishers.
The package has gone
through an extensive period of beta testing at over 100
universities around the world and the first public release,
version 4.0, started shipping in January 1996.

Already, in just two months, over 100 institutional site licences
have been sold and the number of queries is continuing to
increase. This tremendous growth in interest has spured the
Economics Consortium into setting up a WinEcon Web Site to
provide not only product and purchasing information but to also
help support existing users and the user group. The URL for the
site is http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/winecon/

As can be seen from figure 1, the WinEcon Web Site has been
designed with the same look and feel as the WinEcon package
itself, as far as Web HTML format currently allows. The site is
intended to be viewed using a Netscape browser on displays which
support 256 or more colours although it can still be viewed on
older 16 colour displays with some loss of detail in graphic
images. It is also intended to be viewed in a window sized to
640x480 or slightly larger. A "feature" of Netscape browsers is
that they default to dithering graphical images even if the
underlying display hardware is capable of displaying all the
colours in the image. According to your personal preferences, you
may wish to view the site with dithering switched off.

Figure 1: WinEcon Web Site Home Page

Navigating around the site is in some ways similar to navigation
in WinEcon itself. The blue navigation bar (figure 2) available
on every page provides quick access to the main sections:

Contents, Product, Purchasing, Support and Help.

When you are in one of the sections you will see the appropriate button depressed
on the bar. For example, in figure 2 the user is in the Contents
section.

Figure 2: Navigation Bar

The site also includes a number of other usability features. For
instance, to reduce the time taken to download each web page, all
graphics over 6K in size have been replaced with the <> symbol
followed by the file size of the graphic.

For example, (<> 23K).

To view this graphic, either click on the symbol to see just the
graphic, or open a second browser window to see both the graphic
and the text simultaneously.

All areas of the web site are accessible from the contents page
(i.e. the home page). The Product section is an on-line version
of the recently released User Manual with the added features of
hyperlinks, colour screen shots and email connections to the
developers. The Purchasing section contains pricing details of
different versions of WinEcon and a direct link to Blackwell
Publishers. The Support sections is, in many ways, the most
important section and its sub-sections are described below.

On-line Feedback Form

This form (figure 3) is a web page which allows on-line reporting
of errors, queries, ideas and suggestions. Simply by filling in
the form, answering "Yes" or "No" to "Are you expecting a reply?"
and clicking the Send Feedback button, your feedback is emailed
to the WinEcon developers. The systematic nature of this enables
more efficient processing of queries and will assist in the
application of statistical quality assurance methods to
developing future releases of the courseware.

System Requirements

The hardware and software system requirements for running
WinEcon. These are available here to help system administrators
plan for and install the software.

Version History

Lists the versions of WinEcon along with the expected release
date of future versions. Links to lists of known problems for
each released version is also included.

Figure 3: On-line feedback form

Installation Notes

An on-line and hyperlinked version of the readme.txt file shipped
with the WinEcon CD.

FAQ

A list of frequently asked questions and their answers. Where
appropriate, links into specific known problems and solutions are
included. It is anticipated that this list will eventually be
divided into separate technical and educational streams.

Training

A bulletin board with details of forthcoming WinEcon workshops
and seminars.

Downloads

A list of downloadable software and documents. Most of the
product information, including a complete course contents
listing, is available as downloadable word processor documents.
Materials such as course notes and handouts are also available
here.

User Group

Links to web sites of WinEcon users and a general forum for the
exchange of ideas and opinions relating to the integration of
WinEcon into courses. The contribution of articles and any
WinEcon related course documentation, evaluations and reviews is
welcomed here. Suggestions for additions can be sent via the
on-line feedback form.

The current site is version 1.0 of the WinEcon Web Site and it
is expected to grow and develop further over the coming months.

STOP PRESS

A Sampler of WinEcon 4.0 is now available for downloading from
the web site or on disk from Blackwell Publishers.